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The Tolkein tale steams toward $1B as "Good Day to Die Hard" adds $35.7M to lead the foreign box office

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” has opened to an impressive $17.8 million in China, distributor Warner Bros. said Sunday, and it is bearing down on $1 billion at the global box office.

The official China Film numbers will not be available until Monday, but the haul helped the “Lord of the Rings” prequel collect $18.6 million from 44 territories over the weekend, and raise its international total to more than $679 million. With its domestic total of $300.9 million, its global total now stands at $980 million.

The weekend's biggest overseas earner was “Good Day to Die Hard,” which upped its international total to $133 million by taking in $35.7 million from 67 markets. Included were No. 1 debuts in France ($5.5 million) and Brazil ($2.6 million) and strong holds in Germany ($3.1 million), the U.K. ($2.8 million) and Japan ($2.7 million).

“Les Miserables” added another $9.3 million from 49 markets and upped its international total to $248 million, with seven territories including China still to come. With its $146.7 million domestic total, “Les Miz” has taken in $394.9 million globally and is now the highest-grossing Working Title production ever, surpassing the $374 million taken in by the 1999 hit “Notting Hill,“ distributor Universal reported.

“Django Unchained” brought in another $8.5 million from 62 markets to raise its international total to $221.6 million for Sony. With a $158.8 million total in North America, where the Weinstein Company distributed, the worldwide total for Quentin Tarantino's slave saga is $380.4 million.